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Ferulic acid (FA) is a widely distributed hydroxycinnamic acid found in various cereals and fruits exhibiting potent antioxidant and anticancer activities. However, due to low solubility and permeability, its availability to biological systems is limited. Non-toxic chitosan-tripolyphosphate pentasodium (CS-TPP) nanoparticles (NPs) are used to load sparingly soluble molecules and drugs, increasing their bioavailability. In the present work, we have encapsulated FA into the CS-TPP NPs to increase its potential as a therapeutic agent. Different concentrations of FA were tested to obtain optimum sized FA-loaded CS-TPP nanoparticles (FA/CS-TPP NPs) by ionic gelation method. Nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analyses and evaluated for their anticancer activity against ME-180 human cervical cancer cell lines. The FTIR spectra confirmed the encapsulation of FA and thermal analysis depicted its degradation profile. A concentration-dependent relationship between FA encapsulation efficiency and FA/ CS-TPP NPs diameter was observed. Smooth and spherical FA-loaded cytocompatible nanoparticles with an average diameter of 125 nm were obtained at 40 lM FA conc. The cytotoxicity of 40 lM FA/CS-TPP NPs against ME-180 cervical cancer cell lines was found to be higher as compared to 40 lM native FA. Apoptotic morphological changes as cytoplasmic remnants and damaged wrinkled cells in ME-180 cells were visualized using scanning electron microscopic and fluorescent microscopic techniques. Data concluded that chitosan enveloped FA nanoparticles could be exploited as an excellent therapeutic drug against cancer cells proliferation.

Parthenium hysterophorus is a globally recognized invasive alien weed that prominently colonizes grazing areas and cultivated lands causing adverse effect on crop production. Major allelochemicals released from parthenium include sesqueterpene lactones and phenolic acids. Among these the presence of caffeic, vanillic and ferulic acids is of industrial significance as they possess potent free radical scavenging and anticancer activities. This study reports for the first time, high total phenolic acid content (20.82 ± 0.82 mg GAE/g dry sample) in parthenium. The GC-MS analysis indicated the presence of ferulic, p-coumaric, vanillic and gallic acid as major phenolic components. Free radical scavenging activity of the phenolic acids extract gave an EC50 value 130.4 µg/ml when measured using DPPH assay. Anticancer activity of parthenium phenolic extract against A-498 (IC50 0.5237 µg/ml) and MDA-MB231 (IC50 and 0.2685 µg/ml) cancerous cell lines indicated its potential to be used as anticancer agent.

bPEI (polyethylenimine, 25 kDa, gold standard) is highly effective in transfection efficiency owing to its high buffering capacity, however, cytotoxicity limits its use in in vivo applications. We hypothesized that partial conversion of secondary amines in IPEI to tertiary amines, while preserving the overall number of amines, would result in improved buffering capacity, which may, in turn, improve transfection efficiency of the resulting nanoparticles with cell viability comparable to that of native IPEI. IPEI was crosslinked with BDE to obtain a series of IPEI nanoparticles (LPN-1 to LPN-8) which were obtained in approximately 80-85% yield. These particles were relatively non-toxic in vitro and in vivo. In vivo gene expression studies using LPN-5 in Balb/c mice through i.v. injection showed maximum expression of the reporter gene in the spleen. These results demonstrate the potential of these particles as efficient transfection reagents.